Pacific Rim: Uprising

The most important aspect of Pacific Rim Uprising is how it handles the idea that a sequel should always be bigger. Being a second installment, everyone expects it to include more robots, bigger monsters and even more amazing scenarios. Uprising complies with all this, but at the same time the film is so focused on the story of its two main characters that it does not stop feeling small.

Directed by Steven S. DeKnight, Pacific Rim Uprising begins by introducing Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), who explains how the events of the first film changed the planet. Not on a global scale, but on a street level, since Jake’s life is based on stealing, partying and working on the black market. A short time later he will meet a girl named Amara (Cailee Spaeny), who has her own special project under development and will form a reluctant and peculiar friendship.

At the beginning of the story focusing on these two characters, Pacific Rim Uprising manages to connect the audience with something that feels more real than the first movie. We can see how the monstrous Kaiju attacking the world, the gigantic robots (or Jaegers) that humans build to fight against them and all these things have real consequences on real people. It’s a new perspective on the world of Pacific Rim, and a surprising and rewarding aspect of the film.